128 11 ANDY BOOK OF 
DECEMBER. 
" Lonely the forest spring! a rocky hill 
Rises beside it, and an aged yew 
Bursts from the rifted crag, that overshades 
^ The waters cavern'd there. Unseen and slow, 
And silently they swell. The adder's tongue, 
Eich with the wrinkles of its glossy green, 
Hangs down its long lank leaves, whose wavy dip 
Just breaks the tranquil surface." 
a pleasant ramble have we taken together, reader, 
among the woods and in green lanes, where ferns grew wild 
and high, beside the roar of ocean, in quest of such as dwell 
on crags, and even in sea-caves, where the marine Spleen - 
wort loves to hide. Now that trees are leafless, and most of 
the fern tribe have retired to their winter quarters beneath 
the earth, we must refer to our dried specimens for the four 
remaining species which we have still to describe. 
Here, then, is the Scolopcnclriitm rulf/arc, the Common 
Hart's-tongue, the S. qffidnarum, land Asplenium scolopcn- 
drium for such are its three names a peculiarly handsome 
and ornamental fern, which grows alike on streamlet brink 
and in the clefts of arid rocks or aged ruins. Of almost 
universal distribution, and with the exception of some parts 
of Kent and Northamptonshire, where ferns in general re- 
fuse to vegetate, this interesting species is found in every 
part of the British empire. The child who peeps warily 
over the edge of a wynch-well, may see its long graceful 
leaves reflected in the dark waters beneath ; and those who 
rashly peril life or limb in climbing to the sea-crow's nest, 
in the slippery sides of wild cliffs, may often notice luxu- 
riant tufts of the same fern waving far above his head. 
True it is, that the botanist may walk for miles, and return 
disappointed to his home, saying, that nowhere has he been 
